Lesson Plan: Wheel-less Face Jugs Overview The Face Jug

Lesson Plan: Wheel-less Face Jugs
Overview
The Face Jug Tradition of North Carolina
Potters have made vessels adorned with human facial features for almost as long as they have
been molding clay. Anthropomorphic jugs and other containers have appeared throughout the
centuries and in many different cultures. Many of these vessels had functions related to funerals
and other rituals, while others served as portraits of their ruling-class owners.
Traditional potters in North Carolina began crafting face jugs in the early 1900s to break up the
routine of making utilitarian wares. Historians believe that the tradition came from Africa;
however, the functions and meanings of the vessels are unclear.
The new technology of the early twentieth century brought great changes to social and economic
life. Factories began producing many of the items that people had traditionally made by hand.
For North Carolina potters who supplemented their farm earnings by producing and selling
utilitarian wares, these changes were especially hard. Glass and eventually plastic factories put
many potters out of business. Others adapted by making novelty items such as the playful “face
jug” for a growing tourist market.
During the second quarter of the twentieth century, face jugs slowly attracted the attention of
tourists looking for novelty gifts to bring home. Their height of popularity did not begin until the
1970s, however, when Catawba Valley potter Burlon Craig re-popularized the form in response
to a renewed interest among his customers. Soon other North Carolina potters began making
face jugs as well, so that today they come in all shapes and sizes, and with a wide variety of
facial features and expressions.
Age Group
Secondary (grades 6-12)
Standards
NC Essential Standards Addressed:
Visual Arts
Visual Literacy
V.1 Use the language of visual arts to communicate effectively.
V.3 Create art using a variety of tools, media, and processes, safely and appropriately.
Contextual relevancy
CX.1 Understand the global, historical, societal, and cultural contexts of the visual arts.
Critical Response
CR.1 Use critical analysis to generate responses to a variety of prompts.
Length of Lesson
Five 90-minute sessions
Session 1 - Create design in sketchbook, create clay slab cylinder, and attach bottom.
Session 2 - Attach facial features, remove bottle, and begin to coil top.
Session 3 - Finish coiling, attach handle, and clean up rough spots.
Drying time will depend on climate of the classroom - typically 1 1/2 to 2 weeks.
Sessions 4 & 5 (after bisque-fire)-glaze works.
Glaze-fire lasts a day and then face jugs are completed.
Objectives
Students will be able to:
•
•
Describe and interpret NC face jug art examples using vocabulary specific to ceramics
and referencing cultural contexts.
Create a face jug using pinch, coil, and slab construction methods and incising and
applique decorative methods
Vocabulary –
Applique: clay modeled directly onto the plastic surface of clay.
Incise: carve or engrave a decoration into plastic, unfired clay.
Plasticity: the quality of clay that allows it to be easily manipulated and still retain its shape.
Utilitarian wares: Pottery vessels that are made to be used.
Lesson sequence
1. Share NC face jug images. Ask students to describe what they see, interpret what they
think the object is, and discuss what elements they find.
2. Discuss the face jug traditional in North Carolina and other cultures.
3. Share student face jug images.
4. Create face jugs inspired by NC face jug pottery examples.
Assessment
Discuss rubric at beginning of the project so that students understand the project objectives.
At the end of the project, students will complete rubric as a self-evaluation and critical response
exercise.
Jody Stouffer & Brian Wohleben
Lee County High School
Angler Fish
Tea Pot
Jody Stouffer & Brian Wohleben – Lee County High School
Roll and tape a piece of newspaper around a wine bo3le. Repeat a second 5me for two separate layers of newspaper taped around wine bo3le. Use a slab roller, and roll out a flat piece of clay that is long enough to wrap around the wine bo3le. If a slab roller is not available, use stacked yard s5cks and a rolling pin. Use a box or rectangle cut out of mat board, and impress a rectangular shape in your clay. Use a pizza cu3er or other cuBng tool, and cut out the rectangle. Save the excess clay for later use in the project. Roll the clay around the wine bo3le to assure the clay is long enough. If it is too long, excess clay can be cut off. Score and slip both clay ends to assure a good seal, and touch ends to enclose clay cylinder. Connect the two ends of clay to create a clay cylinder. Use a clay tool or your fingers, and smooth the clay connec5on to create a seamless clay cylinder. Take the excess clay from earlier in the project, wedge and roll it out. This will be used for the bo3om of your face jug. Use a needle tool or other clay cuBng tool, cut a circle around the base of the cylinder. Save the excess clay to be used in construc5on of the face. Score and slip the clay circle and the bo3om of the cylinder, and a3ach circle to create the bo3om of the jug. Blend the seam with a clay tool or your fingers. A final blend with a damp sponge should create a smooth finish. This is a good 5me to have your students put their name on the bo3om of their work. You are now ready to construct the face. According to tradi5onal face jug po3ers, the nose is the best place to start. There is no right or wrong way to make a nose. Golden Rule to
Blending
Completely blend
out attachment
lines. You should
not be able to tell
that facial features
were added on,
they should look
like they have
always been there.
Remind students to score and slip all face jug addi5ons unless you use extremely moist clay. Students may use a clay tool or their fingers to completely blend all lines. A final blend with a damp sponge will create a smooth finish. Use your thumbs, and create two inden5ons for the eye sockets. Roll out two clay balls for the eyes. Any5me you make pairings, create both at the same 5me so they are of similar size and propor5on. Score and slip the eye balls into place. Roll out coils and a3ach to create an upper and lower eye lid. In this example, only an upper eye lid is created. Blend the side of the coil that touches the face. This creates a more interes5ng eye feature and helps the eye balls stay a3ached. Use a pointed clay tool, and add a dot in the middle of the eye ball to create a pupil. This helps to bring your face jug to life. Addi5onal coils can be added above the eyelids to create eye brows. Use a needle tool, and incise the clay to create the texture of hair. Try to incise in the direc5on that real eyebrows grow. Roll out coils for the lips. Insert the teeth before you a3ach the lips. Create handmade teeth or use broken plates to give your face jug a more tradi5onal style. Tradi5onal face jugs usually highlight the top row of teeth. Teeth can be pushed into place and the lips will hold them in. A3ach the lips, and blend in the outside of the lip to the face. Eliminate the seams; the face should look to be one piece. Some tradi5onal face jugs have ears while others do not. As with the eyes, form both ears at the same 5me. It is important to leave the bo3le in to a3ach features. This provides support from the inside of your face jug, and prevents collapse. Remove the bo3le aNer all facial features have been a3ached. If this segment of the project goes beyond one class period, make sure the face jug is bagged well. If the clay starts to dry, the face jug will shrink and removal of the bo3le will be extremely difficult. If the face jug project ends at this stage, add a handle to the back and create a tankard style drinking vessel. Another possibility: a container for kitchen utensils. To create a face jug, coil the top of the jug to achieve the desired form. As you layer coils, stagger the start/
stop point of each coil so it does not align with coil below it. This will give form be3er stability. To narrow the top of your form, layer the coil on inner half of the previous coil and blend. Because you will blend, you need only score and slip the first coil. Blend coils with either a clay tool or your fingers. Blend completely to eliminate seam lines. Blend coils together aNer each coil is added. ANer desired height is reached, the final step is to add a handle on the back. The handle can be a rolled coil big enough for one finger to fit through. Fla3en one end of the coil to create a “whale tail”. Align the handle opposite the face, and score and slip the handle and the jug, and blend in the “whale tail” part of the handle. Create a loop for the handle and blend the bo3om of the handle into the jug. Align top and bo3om of the handle with each other. Apply pressure with finger on the inside of the jug as you blend to avoid collapse. To assure thinner, fragile
pieces do not dry too
quickly and crack, bag completed face jug loosely to slow the drying process. ANer several days, remove bag to finish drying. Touch the jug to your cheek to check dryness. If it feels cold there is s5ll moisture in the clay. If it feels room temperature, its ready to go into the kiln. ANer firing, students can glaze their piece or use acrylic paint to decorate it. For advanced students, this same project can be used to create lamp bases. A light assemblage can be purchased at a local hardware store for around $10. Add a lightbulb and a lamp shade and you have a completed lamp. Face Jug Project Rubric All sections should be completed using complete sentences, proper spelling and grammar! Name ________________________ Medium________________________ Date _________________________ Title of Work ______________________ Keywords and Techniques Hand building – slab and coil Textural techniques – impress, incise, appliqué, mixed media Hand building and Textural techniques used -­‐ ________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ Glazes Used -­‐ __________________________________________________________________ (15)________ Completed Sketchbook work _________ (15)________ Strength of Design Concept _________ (15) __________ Strength of Color Concept __________ (15)_________ Clay Construction __________ (15) _________ Texture __________ (15)__________ Glaze / Painting Craftsmanship __________ (10)__________ Time Management and Clean Up ___________ ___________ (100)___________ Total Jody Stouffer / Brian Wohleben – Lee County High School Face Jug Project Critique 1. What person / character / emotion did you try to depict for your face jug? 2. What was the best part of your creative process? 3. What characteristics did you utilize to make your face unique? 4. Is there anything thing you would change about your creative process? 5. Explain where and how you used at least 2 Elements or Principals of Art. 6. Using a minimum of five sentences, create a fictional tale that explains the “story” behind your face jug. Jody Stouffer / Brian Wohleben – Lee County High School Selected Resources on the Southern Face Jug Tradition
Bridges, Daisy Wade, editor. Potters of the Catawba Valley, North Carolina. Journal of Studies,
Ceramic Circle of Charlotte, vol. 4. Charlotte, NC: Mint Museum, 1980.
Horne, Catherine Wilson, editor. Crossroads of Clay: The Southern Alkaline-Glazed Stoneware
Tradition. Columbia, SC: McKissick Museum, University of South Carolina, 1990.
Huffman, Barry G., Catawba Clay: Contemporary Southern Face Jug Makers. Hickory, NC: A.
W. Huffman, 1997.
Newell, Mark M., with Peter Lenzo. “Making Faces: Archaeological Evidence of AfricanAmerican Face Jug Production.” In Ceramics in America, edited by Robert Hunter (2006): 12238.
Perry, Barbara Stone, editor. North Carolina Pottery: The Collection of the Mint Museums.
Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2004.
Zug, Charles G., III. Turners and Burners: The Folk Potters of North Carolina. Chapel Hill, NC:
University of North Carolina Press, 1986.